KATHMANDU, Oct 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The last surviving member of the first 
mountaineering expedition to successfully reach the summit of Mount Everest 
died in Kathmandu on Thursday, aged 92, his family said.

Kanchha Sherpa was a teenager when he accompanied the historic 1953 team led 
by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who became the first 
mountaineers to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain.

The cause of Kanchha Sherpa's death early on Thursday morning was not clear.

"He had been unwell for a few days," his grandson, Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, 
told AFP.

Born in 1933, Kanchha Sherpa was 19 when he joined the expedition as a porter 
despite no prior mountaineering experience.

He undertook the arduous trek, lasting more than two weeks, to Mount 
Everest's Base Camp, carrying food, tents and equipment, before climbing to 
an altitude of more than 8,000 metres (26,200 feet) close to the peak.

"He was a living legend and an inspiration for all in mountaineering and 
those working in the industry," said Fur Gelje Sherpa, the president of 
Nepal's mountaineering association. "We've lost our guardian."

Kanchha Sherpa worked in the Himalayan mountains for two more decades after 
the expedition until his wife asked him to stop the dangerous journeys after 
many of his friends died assisting other climbing treks, his family said.